Gathering - header
Image

Gatherings - who participates

Who participates?

The gatherings include tribes from and around the Colorado Plateau, including: the Kaibab-Paiute, Hualapai, Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, Uinta Ouray Ute, White Mountain Apache, Zuni, Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo tribes.

Gathering - focus area intro

At the gatherings, tribal members from across the region share knowledge and work together to protect the Colorado Plateau. 

Tribal participants are the drivers of the process and have identified four key areas of focus:

Gathering - infographic title

Areas of Focus

Gathering - infographic

Image

Practice water conservation through spring restoration and dry-farming techniques

Image

Preserve songs, stories, and teachings that perpetuate land protection ethics

Image

Develop networks, resources, and tools for effective, long-term protection of sacred sites

Image

Support better health by revitalizing traditional farming, foods, and exercise  

Gathering - Honoring the Old Ways

Honoring our traditions

At the gatherings, participants discuss traditional farming, harvesting, and food preparation as tools to adapt to climate change. Farmers share knowledge of dry-farming techniques and natural pesticides that have been used for generations across the Colorado Plateau. Meet master farmer Rose Marie Williams ›

 

Gathering - initiative intro

Tribes provide the vision and direction of the gatherings, and the Trust helps find resources to fund the initiatives they develop. Here's a sampling of projects that have grown out of the gatherings:

Gatherings - initiatives

Kerley Valley

Kerley Valley Farmers

Hopi and Navajo farmers are keeping traditional farming practices alive in the Tuba City and Moenkopi communities. They share techniques and seeds, teach younger farmers, and provide fresh, healthy produce for their communities. 

Tuba City Farmers Market

Intertribal Learning Center 

The learning center is dedicated to sharing traditional ecological knowledge around agriculture and climate change. It includes an indoor classroom, exhibit space, and garden, and also serves as a gathering place for farmers markets, tours, and workshops.

Rights of Nature

Rights of Nature

The gathering group is looking at how the international framework called the Rights of Nature, which asserts that nature has legal rights, can be advanced by tribes to address environmental concerns across tribal lands and the Colorado Plateau. 

Image
Jake Hoyungowa

Gatherings - related Trust work

Strengthening bonds

Relationships are at the heart of the intertribal gatherings, and the alliances we've built through the years provide a foundation for much of the Trust's work. Because of the gatherings, we've supported projects across Native America with our tribal partners leading the way. 

Intertribal Gatherings Blog

12/22/16

We caught up with Sunny Dooley at a recent gathering to hear her ideas on why it’s important for tribes to get together, escaping the “non-profit industrial complex,” and caring for bloated goats.

Read More
12/9/16

Fourteen contemporary Puebloans eliminated all pre-European contact foods, including sugar, alcohol, wheat, beef, chicken, and even chili.

Read More
11/16/16

Native people from across the Southwest and from as far away as Canada and South America attended the first-ever Indigenous Peoples’ Gathering for Healthy Communities, Culture, and Climate.

Read More
Copyright © 2024 Grand Canyon Trust